Women, Sport, and Culture

Birrell, Susan, & Cole, Cheryl L. (Eds.).

p>This book is reviewed here not so much for what it covers as for what it does not. When I was collecting material for In the Zone, which I wrote with Michael Murphy, I found very few exceptional human experiences recorded by women athletes. In large part this is because writings by and about male athletes greatly outnumbers those by and about women. I cannot believe that women are not having these experiences, however. I think the reason they are not reported is that women athletes are still fighting for their existence and just beginning to find their identities. This book is about those two major factors. It serves as a record of the progress and problems of women athletes vis a vis society and culture, as well as research on the physiology and psychology of women athletes. Only when women athletes are assured of what at least approaches equal treatment, consideration, and attention as male athletes, will they have the luxury of being able to share and build on their sports-related EHEs.

There are five chapters each in Parts I-III. Part I is on "Women, Sport, and Ideology." Part II is about "Gender and the Organization of Sport." The third is entitled "Women in the Male Preserve of Sport," followed by "Media, Sport, and Gender." Part II consists of four chapters on "Sport and the Politics of Sexuality."